Bill Oates:Citizens Connect is our first attempt to create an innovative way to connect with the
constituents of the city of Boston. We had spent some really good time and effort building some
really good technology
platforms in the city, and we really wanted to find a new way to reach out and really touch the
constituents. The mayor of Boston [Thomas M. Menino] is really all about the neighborhoods, the
kids and the families. We pitched this to him and said, 'Mayor, we think this is a really cost-effective
way that really takes advantage of the technology
trends today.'

You think about the consumerization
of technology, and the fact that many of our constituents have great technology in their hands now
with their smartphones. We went out and developed what we thought was a great app, and used a lot
of user
feedback because we wanted to make it work just right. What this app allows people to do is
essentially connect with their city government. So, whether there is a streetlight out in your
neighborhood or a pothole that needs to be filled, Citizens Connect is the app that takes that
request and doesn't bring it to some standalone PC somewhere -- it brings it right to those folks
that are delivering
the service.

We had an overwhelmingly positive response to this around the city. We first did it in 2009. We
are now on our third iteration of the
project, and it has become an essential piece to how people connect to the city. Right now, 20% of
the service requests that come into the city are coming through this mobile channel. So, not only
have we reached out and found a new way to connect with the citizens, [but] we have also created a
really low-cost channel to allow them to do that. It's been great, and now we get all the data generated
from those requests as well.

Citizens Connect opened the door to the city that showed us what we can do with technology, and
in very
innovative ways. So what we did with Citizens Connect, in connecting [residents] with their
basic services -- we now do in lots of places: in the education space, in the administration and
finance space, in public works, public safety [spaces]. It has been really fun to watch this new culture
of innovation take hold in the city.

Definition - Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) CurrentC is a mobile payments application backed by some of the nation's largest retailers including Target, Walmart, CVS, Best Buy and Rite Aid, as well as banks like Capital One.

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